I have a penchant for quoting LOTR each day, and on one particularly rough kiddie day, I told Nikirj "Osgiliath is overrun."
It is an appropriate metaphor for our life here!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Boot and Rally, or, When Birthday Boys Get Sick

"Boot and rally" is a term I learned in my college party-hardy days. It means overindulging to the point of getting physically ill, then rallying to rejoin the party. My newly-minted five year old son certainly wasn't imbibing, but he did have a good time the day before his party helping Daddy mow the grass. Given his earlier pollen-related issues, you'd think Mom and Dad would clue in when he said his throat was bumpy and he looked like he wanted to keel over. But noooooooo we just fed him yogurt and tings to boost his morale. We assumed he'd just gotten suddenly overwhelmed from all the party planning.

With the party due to start at 11 AM, we put him down for a quick nap at 11.08. One family had just arrived and ~N~ just didn't seem to care. That's sooooo unlike our little social boy. One of the realities of living this far out is that people are usually late; that's just a lot of pavement to traverse, so we had a little leeway. By 11.40 though, when the party was in full swing, ~N~ had woken up just enough to get sick on our bed. We cleaned him up, gave him a benadryl and turned on the bedroom TV. The adults mulled it over in the kitchen while the kids had a full-on play date in the backyard. While I had experienced it once as a child, I'd never expected to decide what to in the event of a child-too-sick-to-attend his-own-birthday.

Luckily, after some time to digest a benadryl when we finally figured it out (HE told us he was having a reaction, we're a little slow), and some homey-TLC by a loyal Coraggio boy who watched TV inside with him, he rallied. It was slow-going at first, but by 1 PM he was raring about with everyone else.

The kiddie count was 13 at the height of the party, and it was hilarious watching the two Daddies chase them around. The milk-free cake turned out ok, and we definitely had some extremely dirty, extremely tired little kids by the end of the party. The last guests left at 8 PM.

Thank you to the folks who came; N really appreciated it and is very aware of each of his guests. He's sensitive like that, and values each of you.